Arbitrator Utilities
The Arbites are more than just imposing suits of rattling black carapace armour and sturdy weapons. They are devoted servants of the Emperor, and they will utilise any tool that will hunt down, overawe, suppress, or subdue their degenerate quarry. Utilities 'Gene Printer' This compact piece of apparatus can be worn as a backpack, and will provide (with reasonable accuracy) confirmation as to whether two pieces of biological residue come from the same person. They are used by the Arbites Verispex teams to prove guilt based upon gene-spoor (hair follicles, skin, etc.) left at crime scenes. While many would-be criminals decry this “evidence” as suspicious at best, Lord Marshal Goreman asserts that the devices are serviced regularly by trained Adeptus Mechanicus personnel. Gene printers are relatively simple devices, and lack the nuanced power of the larger, holy Omnissian constructs stored within the great altar-templums of the Mechanicus. These legendary devices are said to be able to unspool a supplicant’s genome all the way back to ancient Terra, providing a wealth of genetic information about him and his entire line. The gene-printer requires an Ordinary (+20) Tech-Use Test to perform the proper rituals of tek-obeisance. A success will confirm whether or not two gene-spoor samples placed within the device come from the same person. The machine-spirits of gene-printers are relatively simple, however, and at the GM’s discretion, complex genetic factors (genetic manipulation, twins, xenos tampering, etc.) may interfere with the result. 'Lord Marshal Gorrman's Carta Sanguine' These are bounties placed on the head of notorious criminals by Lord Marshal Goreman himself. Although such documents are unpopular with the Arbites, they recognise that even they, from time to time, need assistance in tracking down particularly elusive criminals. The introduction of these cartas has created a vast class of interplanetary bounty hunters, who travel from world to world in search of the Imperium’s foes. These warrants can be a Calixian Judge’s nightmare, so complex are the confl icting jurisdictions involved. However, on rugged frontier worlds, they are the readiest form of justice available. The right to pursue Calixan Cartas Sanguine can be purchased on certain worlds. The bearer of such a carta is permitted under Imperial law to travel from world to world in pursuit of the individual named in the document, and to carry such weapons as are locally permitted on any Imperial world to facilitate his capture. The precise cost, terms, and effect of each carta, together with the details of the issuing authority, should be determined by the GM. Cartas Sanguine have an availability of Rare on most worlds, and should cost at least 100 Thrones, even for a simple bounty. Once the terms of the Calixian Carta are met, however, the hunter is entitled to redeem the carta for ten times its original value. The Lord Marshal’s Carta Sanguine serve as a “Calixian Most Wanted” for many bounty hunters. The list (and attendant crimes) fi lls nearly four thousand pages of carefully illuminated text. These books are available for reference on many worlds, but the distribution of such is left to the local authorities. 'Lock-Punch' A simple two-handed cylinder with a salvaged grav-plate generator built in, the lock-punch is designed to quickly disable door locks. The user presses the cylinder against the lock and triggers the plate, which generates a localized maelstrom of gravitic energies that tear the lock (or occasionally the entire door) apart. The user must be wary, however, as the temperamental mechanism may backfire and throw the user across a room—or into the ceiling. The most common form of the lock-punch is crafted from stolen grav-plating found in long forgotten corridors of Hive Subrique. It is rumoured that the entire Hive was built on the remnants of a Rogue Trader’s vessel, but more level heads point to deep sea pressures as a reason to install grav-plates deep within the Hive’s infrastructure. Using the lock-punch is a Full Round Action. The user must press the device’s barrel against the lock and make a Challenging (+0) Tech-Use Test. Success destroys a lock on a standard door of AP 16 or less (this usually includes thin rockcrete, iron, and steel). Particularly flimsy doors, such as wooden ones, are blown apart in their entirity. Tough doors such as adamantium hatches or ceramite vault doors cannot be affected by the lock-punch�� If the user rolls 4 or more Degrees of Failure, the device misfi res and it throws him 2d10 metres away. This deals damage as if he had fallen from the same height, and may have other adverse environmental effects as well (such as if the user is standing on a ledge!). Good and Best Craftsmanship versions throw the user on 5 and 6 Degrees of Failure, respectively. Poor Craftsmanship versions impose a –10 on Tech-Use Tests. 'Magnacles' These are magnetised handclamps—a snap-open hoop constructed of hardened and tempered steel that seals together using powerful magnets. These same magnets (controlled by a simple set of buttons operated by the keyholder) allow suspects (Contortionist, Security, or even pure Strength) to escape the bonds are always taken with at least a Very Hard (-30) penalty, and take three times as long as normal. around a suspect’s wrist and locks to be rapidly clamped to lampposts, Rhino APCs, or other metallic objects. The magnets are intensely powerful, and almost impossible to separate from each other or whatever they are attached to. Arbites officers usually carry at least two pairs of these on their person at any time, and most Arbites vehicles contain dozens. Magnacles are about as advanced and well constructed as wrist restraints can get. All Tests. 'Magnetic Harness' The Magnetic Harness fi nds use on many Calixian worlds where Hive structures and readily abundant metal surfaces are not common occurances, or where an Arbitrator must operate alone. The multiple magnets can either be used as simple surfaces, or as magnetic field generators of their own. The first of their type were simple metal plates, strapped to the arms, legs, and torso of the Arbitrators of Iocanthos, but the system has long since been refined by Calixian Tech-Adepts. Each magnetic plate can be activated and de-activated individually, holding a weapon, piece of equipment, or even a suspect to the plate. Simple taps on the center of the plate set the device to release when pressure is applied, or to hold until the Arbitrator inputs a command sequence. An Arbitrator with a magnetic harness is treated as having the Quick Draw Talent, usable on any object stored on his magnetic harness. In addition, if an Arbitrator has the Quick Draw Talent he may also stow equipment weapons as a Free Action. 'Pinner' Scintilla’s Arbites make extensive use of magnetic latches and holsters to carry their gear and secure prisoners. To help foil their operations, certain factions of the Kasballica have invested in devices called pinners. These coil-generators emit a charged fluctuating mag-field. Though it does not magnetically charge items itself, it greatly amplifies the power of existing magnets. Once activated, the device affects all magnetic devices within 30 metres for 2d10 Rounds, supercharging them. Any attempt to separate the magnet from the surface they are attached to requires a Hellish (–60) Strength Test. Good and Best Craftsmanship versions increase the radius by 5 metres and 10 metres, respectively. Poor Craftsmanship versions decrease the radius by 10 metres. 'Strait Cape' The Chasteners of the Calixis Sector know that in order to break the most hardened criminals it is important to carefully manage every aspect of their incarceration. A key early step in this process is to isolate and disorient them. Strait capes are used to achieve this. These are specially made heavy sacks constructed of strong synthetic canvas which are thrown over suspects. Their limbs are then pulled through holes in the sack, immobilised and hogtied using internal chains, and an attached hood containing a blindfold, gag, and earmuffs is then thrown over the suspect’s head. Completely helpless, the subject can then be attached to the exterior hooks and clamps on Arbites vehicles and roared away into the night to await the pleasure of the Chasteners. All Tests (Contortionist, Security, or even pure Strength) to escape the bonds of a strait cape are always taken with at least a Very Hard (-30) penalty, and take five times as long as normal. Throughout the course of their incarceration within a strait cape, the subject cannot use any Skills or Talents which depend upon sight, sound, or use of their voice, limbs, or hands. 'Verticle Spindle Set' The outer walls of hive cities are often nightmarish drops that can see an unfortunate buffeted by howling winds and toxic gas emissions before falling for kilometres and smashing to death on their armoured flanks. However, the very inhospitable nature of this environment can prove appealing, as it can often provide an unexpected means of access to restricted areas. The need to operate on a hive’s outer shell gave rise to the invention of the spindle-set. Originally said to have been invented by menial tech-wights of the Vertical Hives of far-distant Hilraxis, the design travelled to the Calixis Sector with a succession of Chartist Captains. Currently, tech-wight menials and Reclaimators produce varying versions of spindle sets in several different hives. These devices have proven particularly popular on Ambulon (given that the entire hive exists on a mobile shell hundreds of metres above the ground) and Sibellus. They have not caught on in Hive Tarsus, on the other hand, as the burning desert sun heats the outer shell of the hive to unbearable levels. Spindle sets consist of heavy, reinforced gloves and boots, connected with feed-lines and power leads to a central unit worn on the user’s back. The gloves and boot toes have blunt plates attached to them—powerful electro-magnets, activating when pressed against metal surfaces and deactivating when pulled from the attached surface in a specific fashion. In addition, the plates can detach from the spindle set, allowing the wearer to lower himself on adamantium-weave monoline. Anywhere from one to all four of the plates (both hands and feet) can detach in this manner. This device allows the user to climb any ferromagnetic surfaces (such as most iron alloys) without using the Climb Skill at 25 percent of their standard speed, even upside down. Unfortunately, the clanking of metal on metal, however soft, does impose a –5 penalty to any Silent Move Tests. By detaching from the magnetic plates, the user can also lower himself up to 50 metres. Good Craftsmanship versions of spindle sets have inbuilt compressor launchers that allow the user to fire the magnetic plates at distant surfaces and pull himself in. This is a Half Action requiring a Challenging (+0) Ballistic Skill Test, although in the case of particularly large targets (such as a wall) the GM can grant a size modifier or waive the Test entirely. Best Craftsmanship versions use monofibre hairs on the plates that burrow into surfaces, allowing the user to climb any surface. Poor Craftsmanship versions do not have detachable plates or monoline at all. 'Vox-Pickup' These tiny devices, taking the form of black boxes no larger than the joint of a child’s thumb, are technological wonders from a forgotten age. They are capable of eavesdropping upon any conversation within a 10-metre radius. They can either record up to 100 hours of such conversation, or directly transmit them contemporaneously in short, secure bursts to waiting receivers. The Arbites make extensive use of this equipment to obtain damning evidence against suspects. Enforcers make use of similar devices, though usually they are less sophisticated and easier to detect. The Inquisition also has a great fondness for these machines. Activating a vox-pickup is a Full Action, though they are so simple to use that no Tech-Use Test is required. Detecting an activated vox-pickup is a far harder proposition: anyone searching for one that has been planted must make an Opposed Search Test, pitting his Search Test against an Intelligence Test taken by the person who concealed the voxpickup. At the GM’s discretion, modifi ers may be applied for possessing equipment which can detect burst transmissions, or for having foreknowledge of the actual existence of voxpickups in a given location. 'Vox Privacy Field' Much in demand amongst the secretive Kasballica crime lords, these energy fields create a shimmering dome of force which sound and light do not penetrate. These fields are used to obfuscate their users from the prying eyes of Arbites and Enforcers alike, the better to smoothly affect the lucrative transactions these underworld lords and ladies thrive upon. A privacy field generates a dome of flickering blue light with a ten-foot radius that cannot be seen through or eavesdropped upon. The field offers no physical protection whatsoever, other than visual cover. Each is unique, usually mounted in a small handled case or on a Servo-Skull. 'Wall Eater' It is one thing to invent a corrosive substance that only reacts with biological tissues, but inventing an acid that leaves flesh untouched while devouring stone and steel is another matter entirely. Creating the substance is merely the first problem to overcome—storing it is just as difficult. On the Hive world of Landunder, the noted chymist and savant Maris Pascure invented such a compound, distilled and processed from Landunder’s chemical seas. Though the genius in devising the compound was impressive in and of itself, his design for containing it was far more creative. Pascure tampered with the genetic structure of insectoid hive vermin, creating a creature that would generate the acid within its body and dispense it through its mandibles. He sold it to a local criminal syndicate just before being arrested and executed by the local enforcers for devising materials that could critically destabilize a hive’s structural integrity. The wall eater is an insectoid creature the size of a man’s thumb. The user squeezes the creature’s bloated thorax, forcing the acid through its mandibles and onto the desired surface. One creature can generate enough acid to draw a two metre line, and the acid eats through up to 30 centimeters of adamantium before dissipating. It takes a week for a wall eater to replenish its acid reserves. It is completely harmless to humans, but the wall eaters must be kept in wooden, bone, or ivory cages lest they eat through the bars. There are no Poor, Good, or Best Craftsmanship versions of this item. Category:Gear